#2 - Breadboard Knowledge Review

Breadboard Basics

A breadboard is an essential tool in electronics. It allows you to create circuits and test them - all without the commitment of soldering parts together! Soldering will still come later, after we ensure that the circuit has been tested and works. 

Breadboard Layout

A breadboard with a light-up LED circuit.

Take a look at the image above. Done? Without previous knowledge, using a breadboard can be quite tricky! I mean look at it - there are holes everywhere, how is one supposed to know what connects where? Take a closer look, you will notice that there is a distinct perforation in the board, just to the right of the LED circuit (there will be groupings of dots that look like rectangular groupings of 10 dots/sockets/holes going downward). On the left side of the perforation, there are, starting from the top of the board (by the orange symbol), groupings of dots. Left to right, these will be in groupings of 5, separated by a thick gap (these are used for IC - integrated chips - placement), followed by another grouping of 5, then the perforation. The two groupings of 5 separated by the recessed divider for ICs, continue this pattern down the rest of the board. 

*EVERY SET OF 5 HOLES IS SEPARATE FROM THE GROUPING OF 5 BELOW IT, AND SEPARATE FROM THE GROUPING OF 5 ACROSS THE RECESSED DIVIDER.* 

If you want to connect any of these groupings together, you must use a wire to connect them. 

Next, we will move to the thin sliver to the right of the circuit (the sliver is between the two perforations in the board). This is called the bus line, and it is used to easily connect many things to your power and ground. There are two columns that proceed downward in groups of 5. The entire left half is connected, and the entire right half is connected. This means you have two separate bus lines. NOTE: In some cases, there will be a split about halfway down through both columns; this divides them both in half, providing you with 4 bus lines total. 

Now that you know how a breadboard works, attach a resistor in series with an LED (it is polarity sensitive, so be sure the correct lead is pointed toward ground, or it won't work!) and use your power supply from the previous lab to power it on! 

*See above picture for proof.*

Now that we have reviewed breadboard basics, we should fare well for the circuit building to come!

*Next time we will cover schematic reading and the use of one of electronics most well known laws.